NOC to invest in its infrastructure development

With the improvement of the financial health of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) of late, it has been planning to invest in its infrastructure development from the new fiscal year to increase the fuel storage capacity, citing that the present fuel stock is very low compared to the demand in the market.

“The corporation has planned to build the new depots in different places and upgrade the old ones to increase fuel storage capacity in order to smooth the supply of fuel across the country,” said Gopal Bahadur Khadka, managing director of NOC at a press conference in the capital.

“We will construct new depots near the under construction airports and other places where they are required,” he said.

Similarly, the NOC will build LPG block store in various places in necessary places, including Kathmandu Valley to supply liquefied petroleum gas regularly.

“We have planned to construct LPG block store with a capacity of 35,000 metric tonnes in the next fiscal year to meet at least one month’s demand of cooking gas. At present, 55 bottle plants have only 6,000 metric tonnes storage capacity,” he said.

He said that it was necessary to increase the storage capacity of LPG due to increase in the demand of LPG by 15 per cent yearly. At present, the demand of LPG stands at around 19,000 metric tonnes during the summer season and 30,000 during the winter season.

He said that NOC had planned to upgrade aviation fuel depot of Tribhuvan International Airport to fulfill one month’s demand. The NOC will increase storage capacity of Tribhuvan International Airport by additional 4,000 KL.

The NOC will construct aviation fuel depot at Gautam Buddha Regional Airport having the capacity of 3,500 KL in the next fiscal year, he informed.

He said that the construction of 38-Km Raxaul-Amlekhgunj oil pipeline will start soon after the India government approved its plan to construct it in grant.

Talking about the financial status of the Corporation, he said that the Corporation has able to pay loan amounting Rs. 15 billion after implemented the auto pricing system in diesel, kerosene and petrol almost eight month ago.

He said that the corporation paid Rs. 6.38 billion to the Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) and Rs. 8.6 billion to the Employee Provident Fund (EPF) during the fiscal year 2014/15.

However, the corporation has still to pay loan of Rs. 21.88 billion to the various institutions. Out of total, it has to pay Rs. 12 billion to the government of Nepal, Rs. 3 billion to the CIT, Rs. 4 billion of EPF and Rs. 2.24 billion of commercial banks.

Khadka claimed that the corporation would able to clear all loans of CIT, EPF and commercial banks by the end of the current fiscal year whereas the corporation has been demanding the government to convert its loan into capitalization.

“The financial performance of the corporation has been improving significantly after the implementation of auto pricing system in petrol, diesel and kerosene. We are preparing to implement auto pricing system in LPG also which affected the financial health of the corporation,” he said.